Green Lantern: First Flight

For the roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain of the same name, see Green Lantern: First Flight (Six Flags Magic Mountain).

Green Lantern: First Flight
Two-Disc Special Edition DVD cover art
Directed by	Lauren Montgomery
Produced by	Sam Register Bruce Timm Alan Burnett Bobbie Page
Written by	Alan Burnett Michael Allen
Starring	Christopher Meloni Victor Garber Tricia Helfer Michael Madsen
Music by	Robert Kral
Studio	Warner Bros. Animation Warner Premiere DC Comics
Distributed by	Warner Home Video
Release date(s)	July 28, 2009 (2009-07-28)
Running time	75 minutes
Language	English
Box office	$6,049,797

Green Lantern: First Flight is a 2009 direct-to-video animated film adaptation of the DC Comics Green Lantern mythology. Centering on the first mission of Hal Jordan (Christopher Meloni), the first human inducted into the Green Lantern Corps, the film is written by veteran DC Comics animation collaborator Alan Burnett, produced by Bruce Timm, and directed by Lauren Montgomery. It is the fifth in the line of DC Universe Animated Original Movies released by Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation. Its US broadcast premiere was on Saturday January 16, 2010 8:00 p.m. on Cartoon Network.

Plot

Before any other sentient beings existed in the universe, a race of beings calling themselves the Guardians of the Universe harnessed the power of the green element, the greatest power in the universe, to create the Green Lantern battery. However, the battery has a flaw: the color yellow, the one part of the light spectrum that can resist green. The most concentrated source of yellow energy, the yellow element, was hidden by the Guardians to prevent others from using it against them.

Ferris Aircraft's test pilot Hal Jordan (Christopher Meloni) is recruited to join the Green Lantern Corps after the death of Abin Sur. He is placed under the supervision of respected senior officer Sinestro (Victor Garber), who is investigating Abin's murder. Abin was killed while doing an undercover investigation of Kanjar Ro (Kurtwood Smith), who managed to locate and steal the yellow element. What no one realizes is that Sinestro provided Kanjar with the location of the element, in order to have it fashioned into a weapon of comparable power to the Green Lantern battery.

Jordan quickly comes to understand that Sinestro's beliefs are not in line with those of the Guardians: Sinestro believes that the Guardians have reduced the Corps to merely picking up the messes criminals create as opposed to proactively dealing with the problem. During a mission to capture Kanjar Ro, Jordan is knocked unconscious by Kanjar's energy staff. Sinestro comes in and kills Kanjar, pinning the blame on Jordan. Jordan is stripped of his ring as punishment.

While Jordan waits to be taken home, Sinestro uses his ring to temporarily animate Kanjar's corpse allowing him to learn the location of Qward, where the yellow element weapon is being fashioned. Jordan convinces fellow Lanterns Boodikka (Tricia Helfer) and Kilowog (Michael Madsen) that Sinestro is not what he seems. They catch Sinestro red-handed, but Boodikka turns out to be in league with Sinestro and attacks Jordan and Kilowog. Sinestro escapes, and Boodikka is killed when Jordan tricks her into destroying Kanjar's unstable energy staff.

On Qward, the Weaponers bestow Sinestro with the yellow ring and battery, the latter of which resembles Ranx the Sentient City. Using its power, he lays waste to Oa, the yellow light easily overcoming the Green Lantern rings. The yellow battery destroys the green battery, rendering all the Green Lantern Corps' power rings inert and causing death by asphyxiation of countless Green Lanterns who were in space at the time when their rings failed. Jordan, having recovered his ring moments too late, pounds on the inert green element, breaking it and absorbing the whole of its power. Imbued with the full might of the green energy, he destroys the yellow battery by smashing it between two moons.

However, having exhausted most of his power to destroy the yellow battery, Jordan is left weakened against Sinestro. After a pitched battle, Jordan uses the last of his power to knock Sinestro to the surface of Oa, where Kilowog crushes the yellow ring (as well as Sinestro's hand) with his foot. Kilowog, his ring having regained some of its power, then saves Jordan.

Once Oa is rebuilt and the Green Lantern battery restored, Jordan is asked by the Guardians to lead the Corps in reciting the Green Lantern oath. Jordan then leaves for Earth to check in with his other boss, Carol Ferris (Olivia D'Abo), remarking on the long "commute".

Cast

• Christopher Meloni as Hal Jordan / Green Lantern
• Victor Garber as Thaal Sinestro
• Tricia Helfer as Boodikka
• Michael Madsen as Kilowog
• John Larroquette as Tomar-Re
• Kurtwood Smith as Kanjar Ro
• Larry Drake as Ganthet
• William Schallert as Appa Ali Apsa
• Malachi Throne as Ranakar
• Olivia D'Abo as Carol Ferris
• Richard Green as Cuch
• Juliet Landau as Labella
• David Lander as Ch'p
• Richard McGonagle as Abin Sur
• Rob Paulsen as Qward Weaponers
• Kath Soucie as Arisia Rrab
• Bruce Timm as Bug Boy
• Jim Wise as Lieutenant

Production

According to director Montgomery, Jordan's origin story was previously covered in the Justice League: The New Frontier film: "...we really didn't want to spend a whole lot of time telling that same story over again. So in Green Lantern: First Flight, the origin story is over and done before the opening credits."

Soundtrack

Green Lantern: First Flight (Soundtrack from the DC Universe Animated Original Movie)
Film score (Digital download) by Robert J. Kral
Released	August 25, 2009
Label	La-La Land Records

1. "Main Title" (2:06)
2. "The Ring Chooses Hal" (4:42)
3. "Hal Meets / The Flight of The Lanterns" (3:46)
4. "Labella's Club" (3:28)
5. "Going After Cuch" (3:04)
6. "The Way I Heard It" (2:19)
7. "Bugs in the Baggage" (4:14)
8. "Teleport Pursuit" (2:28)
9. "Brutal Attack / Fate of Kanjar Ro" (3:50)
10. "Relinquishing the Ring" (1:16)
11. "Back From / Boodikka Turns" (5:49)
12. "Weaponers / Sinestro Transforms" (4:28)
13. "The New Power Arrives" (2:35)
14. "The Corps Fights Sinestro" (2:48)
15. "The Corps Fall" (1:34)
16. "Revival of the Green Lantern" (2:25)
17. "Asteroid Battle" (2:47)
18. "Ring Against Ring" (3:00)
19. "The Green Lantern Pledge" (1:03)
20. "End Credits" (3:00)

Reception

Like previous DC Universe Animated Original Movies, Green Lantern: First Flight received mostly positive reviews, currently holding a 7.1/10 at IMDb. ComingSoon.net also gave a positive review, giving it a 7.5 out of 10, citing the impressive action sequences and praising the voice acting, remarking that "Green Lantern: First Flight is a fun action adventure that should please comic book fans." IGN praised the animation and the scale, but complained that the film glosses over a lot of Hal Jordan's backstory from the comics and lacks character development. "The filmmakers seem less interested in his transition from an ordinary man into a intergalactic superhero, and in their eagerness to get him up into space and fighting aliens right away." Overall they gave the film a 7 out of 10. Comic Book Resources gave a positive review for Green Lantern: First Flight, citing that "Green Lantern: First Flight is a welcome portrayal of the material. It shows the appropriate scale and scope of the concept. It illustrates the characters in their best light and, most crucially, makes you wish 'Green Lantern' was its own ongoing animated series." AMC's Filmcritic.com also gave a positive film review, giving the animated feature 4.0 out of 5 stars.

Home media

Green Lantern: First Flight was released on standard DVD in single and double disc editions, along with a high definition Blu-ray release, on July 28, 2009. Features outlined for the double disc edition in the press release include two production featurettes, commentary, a preview of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, trailers of the DC Universe features, digital copy download, and two episodes of Justice League picked by Bruce Timm. The Blu-ray edition has all the features of the double disc standard definition release including three additional Justice League episodes selected by Bruce Timm and the Duck Dodgers episode "The Green Loontern".

External links

• Official website
• Green Lantern: First Flight @ The World's Finest
• Green Lantern: First Flight at the Internet Movie Database
• Green Lantern: First Flight DVD Trailer
• Interview with Victor Garber (Sinestro)
• Interview with Juliet Landau (Labella)
• Interview with writer Alan Burnett
• Interview with voice director Andrea Romano